Forums Closed
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As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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05-29-2014, 08:00 PM
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#1
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PassPorter Guide
 Community Rank: Globetrotter 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,041
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Feature Article: Why I Love the PassPorter Message Boards - The PassPorter Community
Why I Love the PassPorter Message Boards - The PassPorter Community
by Cheryl Pendry
All of you reading this have obviously found PassPorter in some way, and I suspect for most of you, it was through the PassPorter guidebooks.
After all, travel guidebooks are what PassPorter is best known for. For me, I found PassPorter more than a decade ago through the PassPorter message boards, when my husband said to me "have you seen this website?" The rest, as they say, is history. Some of you will be familiar with the PassPorter message boards, but for those who aren't, firstly I'll say that I'm not usually the sort of person who frequents Internet message boards. I'm on Facebook, like so many people, although I don't visit it every day, and I certainly don't post that much, unless we're on vacation, when I love to share our photos of the (hopefully!) wonderful time we're having.
There are some message boards out there on the Internet that aren't exactly friendly, or welcoming, and I'm a member on one or two of them, but the fact I do't visit them any longer tells you something. That's what I absolutely love about the PassPorter boards. Not only are they friendly, visit often enough and you feel as if you're part of a family, albeit a very unusual one with the members scattered all over the world.
This sense of family is highlighted by how often PassPorter members get together in person. I've lost count of how many fellow PassPorters I've now met in person, and it's not all Disney parks. Outside of Walt Disney World, Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disney, and Disneyland Paris (yes, I've met online friends at all those parks!), we’ve met up with people in places as far apart as New York, Utah, Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver, Alaska, various towns in the United Kingdom, Germany, plus some more that I'm sure I’m forgetting! I’ve personally formed many wonderful friendships over the years, and we’ve played host to some of those friends when they’ve come to stay with us from across the pond. Apart from the friendliness of the PassPorter message boards, I love the variety of discussions that go on there, invariably all respectful of each other and people’s differing views. Of course, Walt Disney World is a major focus, and so is Disneyland in California. The Disney Cruise Line doesn’t miss out, and there’s even a forum for anyone considering visiting Disneyland Paris.
Included in those forums is the ability to post reviews of Walt Disney World resorts you’ve stayed in, while you can also either upload photos of food at Walt Disney World or on the Disney Cruise Line, or just stare longingly at the screen, wanting to devour every photo you see. Can you tell that’s a problem I often have?
Something I personally love is reading trip reports, whether from Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or the Disney Cruise Line. It’s a lovely way of keeping the Disney magic alive in between vacations, whether it’s reading what other people get up to, or sharing your own experiences. I’ve lost track of how many great ideas I’ve got from people’s trip reports over the years.
If you've got questions about the other theme parks in Orlando or Southern California, there are forums to ask those in, and you can even get advice on forays into the wider world, with Globetrotting forums dedicated to vacation planning, and trip reports. The questions, and the trip reports cover literally the whole globe, with just the ones on the front page alone covering Hawaii, Alaska, national parks, the Caribbean, France, Spain, the UK and China! If you’re interested in a destination anywhere, the chances are one of our PassPorter members has been there already.
Outside of Disney chat, there are forums set up for topics as diverse as photography, books, TV and music, sport, craft activities, and family news. I bet you never realised that there was so much included on what are predominantly Disney message boards.
If you've never visited a set of message boards before, then I really can’t recommend PassPorter's highly enough. Sometimes it’s very daunting to actually go and post on them, and I remember that feeling very well, even though it was a long time ago now, so I know how you feel. However, I can 100% assure you that you’ll have a very warm welcome from everyone there. I hope some of you reading this now, who either haven’t visited the PassPorter site before or perhaps who are members, but have never posted, will come along and join in with some of the discussions on the friendliest, most family orientated Disney message boards anywhere online. I look forward to meeting you virtually over there – please do pop over and say hello!
You can visit the PassPorter Message Boards at http://www.passporterboards.com/forums.
Added to PassPorter's Article Collection on 05-27-2014 10:05 AM
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
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